


in exile

by alea_archivist (the_aleator)



Series: A Mere Appendix [18]
Category: Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms, Sherlock Holmes (1984 TV), Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
Genre: Angst, Gen, Grief, no beta we die like men
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-14
Updated: 2020-04-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 01:53:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23657167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_aleator/pseuds/alea_archivist
Summary: What happens to the Irregular boys when they grow up?
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson
Series: A Mere Appendix [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1636375
Comments: 1
Kudos: 15
Collections: Watson's Woes JWP Entries: 2013





	in exile

His head turns sharply at the tinkling of the shop bell, and he bites his tongue at the entering gentleman, short and shapeless, one of thousands in the city. An easy mark, he thinks, and brushes his apron in chastisement. He sweeps his broom against the floorboards diligently, ignoring the chasm of disappointment in his narrow chest.

He is to be a man now, and to put away childish things, or so they tell him.

But funny how his keen eyes still seek out the familiar thin form and his companion, the habits of a fatherless child, he supposes. Sometime he thinks that he might spy them, upon the street or passing through the crowd on some venture or other, but he is either mistaken or forgotten.

He does not wish to guess which.

He had thought that he was an Irregular for life, but life, he knows with a street urchin’s intuition, is short and wretched.

After all, it is their influence alone which affords a former street Arab his work, and he can only thank either of them for that, because to proper eyes, there is only a reformed urchin, not a former one.

He reads in the Bible of the prodigal son’s return, and hails with happiness Mr. Holmes’ similar return from the dead. In a way, too, he has been exiled from anything of life that he formerly lived, or any of the people that he has known.

But it is with the settling of manhood on his shoulders that he realizes that only heroes are granted a welcome from their exile, and only men such as Mr. Holmes are never forgotten.

And he looks no more for them.

**Author's Note:**

> JWP #30 - Mirror, Mirror Challenge


End file.
